'Prospective students no longer so scared of £9,000 fees' blog discussion

The_One_Who

EdgEy wrote: »

Take a three year degree - so three years' lost earnings. Let's say 20k as a fair estimate for a salary commanded straight out of sixth form college.

Pretty much agree with all your post, but just wanted to pick up on this. I don't know about the rest of the country, but a £20k starting salary for someone straight out of school? Possible but very unlikely! Graduates and those in reasonably respectable jobs don't earn that much!

Derivative

So your "pushes that £2-3k to say £3-4k" was a statement about the necessary initial salary differential in order to break even on the decision and it also assumes 40 years of constant working?

No, I am assuming a total average career salary of a few thousand more as a result of holding a degree. If you don't assume constant working then you have to add more, yes.

If you don't believe that you will earn a few thousand more per year as a result of holding a degree, then I would agree that going to University may not be a sensible (business) choice.

The decision on whether it was worth it in your case is whether you will do better than break even ?

My personal belief, and only time will tell on how true this is, is that even if my loan is never wiped - that it will allow me to earn 10% more than if I had no degree. More than makes up for the 9% repayments above threshold if I never pay it off.

And yes - breaking even is good enough for me - considering the wonderful time I've had at University so far, the intelligent and varied people I've met, and the wonderful city I get to live in. YMMV.

I worry about the unknowns such as the interest accruing (which could easily explode if the economy goes wrong) and the movable or deletable thresholds, and from there to movable retirement dates.

You've heard the word "wageslave", EdgEy - where's the protection against that ? It is not so long ago that the man in the street felt he was an unwilling slave to his mortgage company. I can remember when rates went as high as 15% - luckily I had fixed for 11.3% at that time for a few years.

A valid point.
At the end of the day, as you say, you can't control all the variables.
I would call taking a degree course a controlled risk, not a sure-fire path to success.

The_One_Who wrote: »

Pretty much agree with all your post, but just wanted to pick up on this. I don't know about the rest of the country, but a £20k starting salary for someone straight out of school? Possible but very unlikely! Graduates and those in reasonably respectable jobs don't earn that much!

Indeed - I chose it as a fairly 'high estimate', as I feel arguing over a few hundred here or there is kind of bypassing the point when we can't estimate rates anyway.

amyleannewalker

Sorry - made a mistake on the interest front. But I do still think that they're certainly not the worst debt you can get in to considering you're then getting an education which should up your earnings. Rather than, I don't know, getting a credit card because you just spend irresponsibly and not really knowing what you've bought with that money. I do think it is an investment. Regarding never paying them back, I do see that as a positive because it means that you are not necessarily paying back these colossal figures that people are coming up with. It's ridiculous that it should be though, that much I definitely agree with.